Losing a Friend
by ChelberNo.1
Summary: Aang. Bumi. Kuzon. Three boys from three different nations. All best friends. Inseparable, that's what people said about them. But what happens after the Air Nomad Genocide? One goes missing, no one knows where. One feels like they have betrayed the world. The other, left all alone. How do they cope? How do they react? Chapter 2 up!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Decided to take a break from 'Lose Myself With You' before I got sick of it. So I decided to start up this thing I've been wanting to do . . . Bumi, Kuzon, and Aang. This is going to be a few related oneshots, leading up to the Air Nomad Genocide, where it will be about Bumi's and Kuzon's life after all that. **

**I wrote **_**this **_**one today, just quickly setting up their characters. A few things made me do it – talking to MorllyNo.1, reading a Fanfic ("The Legacy of the Headband" by Golden Solidus. The part about 'Kuzon the Traitor')**

** They all (Aang, Bumi and Kuzon) would be around 7 years old.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Kuzon watched as Appa landed in the back garden, squashing some of his mum's flowers. Aang jumped down, his usual goofy grin on his face, and the two friends hugged.

"Sorry about the flowers – Appa's a bit tired." Aang looked over his shoulder at the crushed petals.

"Don't worry about the flowers – they'll grow again. Did you get lost on your way here or something? You were meant to be here last week!"

Aang rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "We had some . . . uh . . . _technical_ problems halfway here."

There was a snort of laughter from the saddle. A bag was thrown down, and a second later a boy with wild hair jumped from the saddle, landing heavily beside the bag. He picked up it up, and pointed accusingly at Aang. "It wasn't _technical problems_, you forgot to put the saddle on properly, and it _fell off_ while we were fifty feet in the air! I almost died!"

Aang crossed his arms. "You didn't almost _die_; I caught you with plenty of time to spare." He looked sideways at Kuzon. "This is Bumi, by the way,"

Kuzon had heard a lot about Bumi from Aang. An earthbending, rebellious 'mad genius', as Aang had described him. Kuzon had been looking forward to meeting – to him, people of the Earth Kingdom were a bit boring. But Bumi sounded like a lot of fun, full of crazy ideas. Both boys stepped forward and shook hands, grinning.

Aang jumped back onto Appa, getting the rest of their bags and throwing them down. Kuzon shouldered a few, then turned back to Bumi. "So how did the saddle fall off Appa?"

Bumi happily continued the story. "We were flying over an ocean – I have no idea which one, so don't ask – and the next thing I know is that Appa's saddle was slipping sideways! It fell right off, and the next thing I know is that the ocean seemed to be speeding towards me! I don't think Aang would've noticed if it weren't for my screaming. I must say, I'm proud of my screaming skills. So he came down with his glider, and caught me with a metre before I went _splat _into the water."

"You were _not!" _Aang yelled from somewhere up on Appa. The last bags flew down, Aang floating down beside them. "He had barely gotten five metres away from Appa. He almost broke my glider, too. Almost tore the whole wing off when he wouldn't stop screaming."

Kuzon shook his head as the airbender and earthbender started bickering. "What happened next?"

Bumi continued before Aang could open his mouth. "Aang flew around like a headless cow-chicken, trying to catch all of our bags. We got most of it before the saddle hit the water. And when it hit, man, it hit _hard." _He winced, thinking that he was very lucky he wasn't in the saddle at the time.

Aang quickly butted in, taking advantage of Bumi's temporary silence. "Bits of saddle were _everywhere._ We had to find an island to drag all the debris back to. And, by that time, we had to get Appa-"

"Who he forgotten about." Bumi cut over Aang. "Like, he suddenly remembered that Appa was still heading towards the Fire Nation, on auto pilot or something. It took him almost an hour to get him back. That bison had to be sleeping to miss his saddle falling off his back." As if to emphasise that point, Appa groaned and took a few steps towards the small stable on the corner of the property.

Aang laughed, and started to lead him to the stable. Bumi and Kuzon took the rest of the bags and headed towards the house. "How did you fix the saddle?"

"It took us a few days. Finding driftwood and rope . . . Aang had to take his glider and find a market somewhere to get supplies. It was fun, actually. Not being stranded, but camping. Forced camping. You should try it." Kuzon laughed, much to Bumi's bewilderment. But he continued on. "It's still pretty rugged though, the saddle. But it held together, so..."

"The monks are going to kill me," groaned Aang, suddenly appearing behind them, making them both jump. "I ruined a perfectly good saddle. They're going to lock me in my room for a year."

Bumi patted his shoulder gently. "That's what you get for trying to kill me, my friend."

Aang glared at him as they climbed the steps to the back door. Luckily, Bumi was distracted by the actual house. "Whoa! _This _is a Fire Nation house? I thought it'd be like a mini volcano, or at _least _have a sculpture made out of fire on the roof. Or maybe a moat of lava . . ."

Aang laughed while Kuzon rolled his eyes. Bumi punched him in the shoulder. "Just kidding, mate. I knew you guys had relatively normal houses!"

Kuzon couldn't help but snort. Bumi seemed like a fun person to be around. This week should be good.

* * *

**A/N: Very short. I'll try to get another chapter up soon. I'm **_**pretty **_**sure I know what's happening next . . . (Oh, great. Now I have TWO multi chaptered series to plan and finish.)**

**Bumi, why do you have to be such a tease? You're going to be causing quite a bit of mischief, aren't you?**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Oh! Yeah, I stuffed up really badly in the last chapter. In the first A/N, I said that they would be around 11 years old. **_**Wrong. **_**They are around 7 years old. (Sorry for the major stuff up!)**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter! This is set, idk, a day or so after the first one. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. BUT I did come up with the Cucumber Merchant . . . ;D**

* * *

It was actually quite a busy day in the markets, for a Fire Nation Town. Aang, Bumi and Kuzon weaved in and out of people, trying to find the right stalls for the shopping list that Kuzon's mum gave them. Well, Aang and Kuzon weaved through the people; Bumi couldn't quite keep up, and kept crashing into people.

Aang rolled his eyes as Bumi tripped over a man's foot and nearly crashed into a young girl. Quickly, he seized his friend's arm and dragged him out of people's way, earning a huff from a tweedy looking woman. Bumi straightened up, puffing slightly.

"This . . . this is a crazy town!" He dusted off his clothes, shaking his head. "In Omashu, even on market days, it isn't this wild."

Kuzon strolled over, carrying a basket full of fruit, sniggering slightly. "Mate, it isn't the crowds that are the problem. You can't move swift enough to not get trampled. Face it - you have the grace of an elephant-hog."

"Earth isn't the most subtle of elements," Aang pointed out, failing to hide his smirk.

Bumi crossed his arms and tried for a disapproving frown. It wasn't very convincing – the corners of his mouth were twitching up. "What, are going to start bagging out people's elements now? Just because air and fire is too wimpy to stand up and push their way through anything doesn't mean yous have to force your insecurities onto me. You're both intimidated by my awesome-ness, and try to make feel bad for it."

Aang and Kuzon stared at Bumi for a bit. Aang rubbed the back of his head. "Uh . . . well, I can't think of a comeback for that."

Bumi looked expectantly at Kuzon. "What about you?"

"'Yous' isn't a proper word," Kuzon blurted. Bumi laughed.

"I suppose it isn't. But you know what else isn't proper? _Shopping _while we could be exploring or doing . . . stuff . . ."

"Yes! Stuff! I can't wait to do _stuff_."

"Shut up, Aang. You know what I mean. Whose idea was it to volunteer to get groceries, anyway?" Bumi and Aang swung around to look at Kuzon, who held his hands up in surrender, almost dropping his basket.

"It wasn't my fault," He exclaimed, as he fought to keep the basket toppling out of his arms. "Mum made me! It's part of my chores."

Aang took pity on the struggling Firebender, taking the basket from him. "At least we have the rest of the day to ourselves,"

"Assuming we get this done before night fall," groaned Bumi, looking glumly at the list that he had pulled form his pocket. He stretched the crumpled parchment out, squinting as he tried to decipher the inky smudges. "We're not even quarter of the way through!"

Aang took the list from him and quickly scanned it. "You guys obviously haven't seen an airbender rush to get something done. I could do this in under a half hour."

Kuzon snorted.

"I'll take that as a challenge," Aang shoved the basket into Bumi's hands. "Let's do this!"

* * *

Sure enough, Aang, with the help of Bumi and Kuzon, had all the shopping done within half an hour. Kuzon and Bumi could barely keep up with him as he zoomed through the crowds, quickly buying (and occasionally haggling) items. He would shove bags and baskets into his friends' arms, then he would be off again.

"You know," said Bumi, as they dragged all the groceries up a hill, "you never helped _me _when I was doing chores when we were at Omashu."

"You hardly ever get chores," Aang reached the top of the hill, stopped and waited for the others to catch up. "Nobody trusted you to not demolish things. And even when you _did _get a job, Airbending wouldn't have helped, not unless I wanted to destroy the Cucumber Merchant's stall again."

Bumi laughed at the memory, But Kuzon frowned. "Cucumber Merchant?"

"Just some crazy guy in Omashu that sells nothing but cucumbers. He _loves_ his cucumbers. He treats them as family. . ." Bumi joined Aang at the top of the hill, throwing down his packages. "Why didn't we bring Appa? He could've carried it back up to the house for us!"

"Hey, if you want to wake up a tired sky bison early in the morning, you go ahead and do that,"

Kuzon started dragging his basket down the hill. "C'mon guys, mum will start to worry,"

It didn't take them to long to get back to Kuzon's house. Aang tried to push the door open, but it wouldn't budge. He looked over his shoulder at Kuzon. "Do you have a key?"

Setting his load down, Kuzon quickly searched his pockets. "Uh . . ."

"Oh!" Bumi dropped his armful, and stepped forward. "I've been working on something, let me open the door!"

"Uh . . . okay, then," Aang stepped back from the door. Bumi bent over and peered through the gap between the door and the wall. Then, with his tongue poking out in concentration, made a fist with his hand, and started shaking it, like he was using a hammer sideways on a nail. Slowly, the bolt on the other side of the door slid free, and Bumi pushed it open, a triumphant grin on his face.

"I'd like to see fire or air bending do _that." _

"Touché, my friend," Kuzon walked by him, shaking his head. Aang followed him, laughing quietly.

They walked into the kitchen, setting the groceries down at the table. "I still can't believe you don't have a volcano in your house," murmured Bumi sadly, staring at the floor as though he expected it to suddenly turn into lava.

Before Kuzon could answer, Kuzon's mum bustled into the kitchen.

"Kuzon! I didn't expect you back so soon. Thank you for getting the groceries for me, darl!" She crossed the room, pulled him into a hug and began smothering kisses on the top of her son's head, making his face glow a bright red. Aang and Bumi sniggered behind her back, where Kuzon could see them clearly.

"Mum . . ! Gerroff me!" Kuzon wriggled out from his mother's arms, his face on fire. Bumi started snorting, causing Aang to splutter as he tried to hold back his laughter. Kuzon's mum waggled her eyebrows at them, winked at Kuzon, then left, taking the baskets, bags, and packages with her. Before she left, she ruffled Kuzon's hair and pinched his cheek before he could escape her grasp.

As she disappeared into the hallway, Kuzon turned to his friends, whacking them over their heads. "I swear to Agni, I will kill you if you ever mention this!"

Bumi retreated, still snorting, shaking his head. "No promises!" Kuzon turned on Aang.

"Control your earthbender!"

Aang pushed his hands out, creating a sphere of air to keep Kuzon at bay. "No way. I agree with him."

Kuzon glared at them both. "Next time I see _your _parents, I _will _make sure it will embarrassing for you and I will make sure _everybody _knows!"

Bumi faulted, then shrugged. "I'll just make sure I embarrass _them _before they can embarrass _me. _Besides, they're always at meetings or working in an office."

Aang grinned. "I don't have any parents to embarrass me," then he frowned. "But Gyasto . . ."

Kuzon, who always found the fact that Aang didn't have any parents awkward and tense, changed the subject quickly.

"So, what are we doing today?"

"_Stuff_, apparently."

"_Aang! _Stop it, or I swear-!" Bumi elbowed Aang in the ribs, and Aang leapt away, laughing and wheezing at the same time. Kuzon shook his head.

"Alright, let just go, before we destroy the kitchen. We can think of something to do outside."

"Wouldn't have to worry about destroy anything if your house was made from a _volcano," _

"Whatever, Bumi. Outside."

Aang followed Kuzon and Bumi out the door, a bit bemused as they started bickering again. He knew that within minutes, they would have forgotten what they were arguing about, and would probably gang up on _him. _Fun times all around.

Suddenly, Aang shuddered, and a cold feeling spread through his stomach. He stumbled, almost missing the last step and sprawling on the grass. Quickly, he recovered, and looked over his shoulder, trying to supress the shivers going down his spine.

Kuzon's father was looking out the top-story window at them. Aang didn't know much about the man. He was usually working in the Capital City, or – when he was at his house - in his study, working. Kuzon said that he was in the Fire Nation Army, and was in Fire Lord Sozin's highest ranking officers. He often spoke highly of his father, reliving earlier, happier memories with his father.

But, Kuzon had said, the last few years, something had changed. His father was away for longer, and when he was at home, he was stressed. Tense.

Aang didn't know why, but at that moment, as they – Aang and Kuzon's father – locked eyes, Aang was suddenly weary and afraid. Afraid of what, though? He knew it was unreasonable.

Kuzon's father suddenly shifted, his face coming into view better, his expression a mixture of curiosity, guilt and uneasiness. Aang's subconscious started screaming at him. _Run. Get out of here. Go home. Run. RUN NOW-_

"Hey, Aang, are you coming or not?" Bumi called out to him, startling him. Aang whipped around, saw Kuzon and Bumi standing at the garden's gate, waiting for him, and turned again, but Kuzon's father was no longer at the window.

Aang turned, and jogged to catch up with his friends. He still felt cold. His hands were shaking.

What was that all about? Why was he even scared? Why did he suddenly feel the need to see if Gyasto was alright?

_It's nothing, _Aang told himself sternly. _You didn't get enough sleep last night. That all._

_No, it's not . . ._

For the first time, he didn't feel truly safe here, at the Fire Nation.

* * *

**A/N: saying, Bumi didn't metalbend when he opened the door. Maybe the bolt had dust on it, or if the door had some type of rock in it, he could've just made the door vibrate or something to move the bolt. **

**So, apologises for the lateness of this chapter. I do have my reasons; I'm not slacking off. **

**Review! Follow! Fav! Eat some Chocolate! Sleep! Sing! Dance! Play some drums! Rock on! Peace out!**


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